THE newly appointed chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has undertaken a daunting task.

RAPE ranks among the most heinous of crimes, and it is therefore extremely worrying that sexual attacks

NO reference was made to sexual abuse in the State’s first official document referring to non-accidental injury of children, the Inquiry into Child Abuse heard yesterday.

THE support group One in Four has vowed to continue assisting victims of sexual abuse despite a 24% cut in funding.

ONE-IN-FIVE women is abused by her partner, yet the Government has done little to tackle domestic violence, Amnesty International has claimed.

ALMOST 300 serious crimes were committed every day last year — 55 more daily than in 2001.

I HAVE written to the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, to express the serious concern of the Irish Refugee Council about the appalling insensitivity shown recently to a number of immigrants and their children by certain officials of the state.

IRRESPECTIVE of age or sex, the decision arrived at by Mr Justice Paul Carney this week in the case of a young man who pleaded guilty to the rape of a much older man is perplexing in the extreme.

WOMEN joined together yesterday to observe a minute’s silence for the 107 women murdered in Ireland since 1996. Against the backdrop of a giant in memoriam card each woman was represented by a white lily.

INCREASING numbers of refugees and migrants who have suffered sexual violence in their home countries are providing fresh challenges for rape crisis services.

THE Director of Public Prosecutions is investigating ways to inform victims of crime why their case won’t be prosecuted.

THE number of rape and aggravated sexual assault cases being brought to court has fallen by an alarming 70% over the last six years, figures from the Court Service have revealed.

RAPE and sexual attacks by complete strangers are on the increase, the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has warned.

THE Dublin Rape Crisis Centre’s inability to respond to every cry for help is troubling newly-appointed chief executive Rosemary Daly.

CAMPAIGNERS will be encouraged by the revelation that Health Minister Mary Harney is actively considering ways of streamlining the State’s response to Ireland’s growing crisis of rape and sexual assault.

THERE will be no refuge for many victims of domestic violence who will flee their homes with their children over Christmas.

THE fact that some rape victims can endure a harrowing 11-hour delay before undergoing forensic examination is a damning comment on the inadequacy of our response to their plight, in a community where sex crimes have been swept under the carpet for decades.

THE DPP should be made accountable and give reasons for decisions not to pursue rape cases, leading academics and rape help groups have urged.

PROPOSALS that Minister for Justice Michael McDowell will bring to the Cabinet tomorrow on how best to formally inquire into allegations of clerical child sex abuse would appear to be going generally in the right direction.

A REPORT from Britain will influence if nurses here are trained to carry out forensic examinations on sexual assault victims.